Ponniyin Selvan was his most famous work....in the thick of the Chola drama.
He wrote couple prequels to it (that I was talking about):
Sivagamiyin Sapatham (Pallava emperor and his son story, their sustained fight against Chalukyas...father was defeated, his son avenged this)
Parthiban Kanavu (The son in previous story is now the emperor...but Parthiban Chola, vassal chieftain, gets his dream...and along with his son commences the Chola awakening...which will be finally fulfilled some 300 years later in events of
ponniyin selvan with your namesake
)
Yah I am just saying originally. Tamil itself underwent significant changes we carry to this day under Pallavas. In fact first story I mention starts with reference to Appar...we both know where
he stands in Tamil literature and culture
They Pallavas were Tamilified quite quickly...they hold a crowning place in our history and formation as a people today.... right alongside the "more local" Sangam trio. No doubt.
The kalabhra mystery that Joe references is very interesting to look into too...they have been given a biased take for a long time....its overdue the further research that is happening more recently.
@Joe Shearer @TheGreatMaratha @Gibbs @Syama Ayas @Arulmozhi Varman @Chhatrapati
(Original thread closed now...so I figured I can maybe move to this quiet one...because "Whatever" didn't feel like a great place for it, Chera state in Tamilakam after all
)
THIS was the right time to read it, during the lock-down; as you must already know, there are several English translations. Unfortunately, the 56 incher who is worshipped in immaterial form by at least one whom you have tagged has banned books from essential items. Figures.
You must all who have read at least the plot synopsis seen the more than passing resemblances to Game of Thrones.
We have no equivalent in Bengali. Bankimchandra, although such a masterful writer, completely in command of his language, and a spinner of yarns of at least the level of Walter Scott (personally, I consider Bankim superior; he had tighter plot lines) wrote no connected mega-series like this. His stories, powerful as they were, and they were very powerful, were stand-alone, isolates.
For those who are interested, you must read
Devi Chaudhurani, about the spurned and despised wife who made herself a terror in the land, and whose husband finally found himself wooing her without knowing that she was the same abandoned wife; and
Durgesh Nandini, the Castellan's Daughter, a gripping tale where Man Singh's son, expanding the Mughal rule of Akbar Padshah as his own father's able lieutenant, clashes with the Pathan overlords of Bengal and Odisha, meets his match in the elegant, chivalrous Pathan prince, breaks the heart of his sister, helplessly, and carries away, in the teeth of all odds, the fallen Castellan's daughter whom the Pathan prince loved passionately; and perhaps,
Ananda Math, centred in famine and the Sanyasi Rebellion, in which book the author, a Sub-District Magistrate and a British minion in real life, vented all his rage and frustration at the rulers in the contempt for the Company's forces expressed by the Sanyasis.
Maybe after the lock-down.....
@Pashtuni
If you want to read what one of the greatest Bengali novelist, in fact, the first novelist, wrote about Pathans, try to get an English translation of Durgesh Nandini (its proper and original rendering was as one word, Durgeshnandini, you might have to look carefully). What he writes about the chivalry and generosity of the Pathans suitably answers those who think him to be a Hindu-first bigot. Hindu-first, yes, bigot, no.
